Street Fight Daily: LivingSocial Top-line Up, Journatic CEO Defends

Share this:

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal content, commerce, and technology.

LivingSocial Top-line Accelerates, Up 15% in Q1 (Yipit Blog)
Last Thursday, Amazon’s quarterly filing revealed that LivingSocial grew 170% over the first quarter in 2011. Annual growth for the #2 player is not surprising given industry’s rapid expansion last year, but now new data shows LivingSocial’s North American gross billings are accelerating – up 15% in Q1 2012 from Q4 2011, after an increase of only 6% the previous quarter.

Should Apple Buy Both Square and Foursquare? (GigaOm)
Mor Naaman: After the deal, Apple will immediately become a giant payments company, with an installation base that is expected to encompass half of all mobile devices sold. The company will have the best local search abilities, far exceeding any existing recommendation engine. And due to its enormous reach, it will possess a payment system that merchants will line up to support.

A Hyperlocal News Manifesto (BoingBoing)
Ned Berke, editor of Sheepshead Bites: “What meaningful local reporting requires is a personal investment. If the reporter doesn’t stand to benefit from a healthy community, his coverage will serve to dramatize and exacerbate problems rather than solve them.”

Journatic CEO: We Are Creating a Better Future for Journalism (GigaOm)
The Journatic model, says Brian Timpone, is a process in which different aspects of the package are generated or produced by different people. So one person might come up with the source material, another might write a paragraph or two, another would add links and another might do some editing (some of which is done in the Philippines).

HTC-backed DDMap Raises $40m to Roll Out Local Info, Search and Deals Platform Across China (The Next Web)
DDMap offers Chinese urbanites an extensive mix of local services on the Web and mobile phones, including news, business listings, mobile search, couponing, travel information, place check-ins and whatnot, currently in 40 cities and counting. The company will use the new funding to double down on its smartphone apps.

Pandora Challenges Radio on Local Ad Turf (NetNewsCheck)
By combining audio advertising with online display, Pandora boosts ad performance by 60%, according to John Hilton, the company’s executive director of strategic partnerships. Here Hilton talks about Pandora’s local advertising sales strategy and its expanding influence in the car.

Get Street Fight Daily in your inbox! Subscribe to our newsletter.

Tags: